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The Co-Optation of Tecumseh: the War of 1812 and Racial Discourses in Upper Canada Robin Jarvis Brownlie

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The Co-Optation of Tecumseh: the War of 1812 and Racial Discourses in Upper Canada Robin Jarvis Brownlie Document generated on 09/25/2021 4:21 a.m. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association Revue de la Société historique du Canada The Co-optation of Tecumseh: The War of 1812 and Racial Discourses in Upper Canada Robin Jarvis Brownlie Volume 23, Number 1, 2012 Article abstract The Shawnee leader Tecumseh is one of very few named Aboriginal figures URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1015727ar who are accorded a place in Canadian history texts. In the years following the DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1015727ar War of 1812, he was claimed by Upper Canadians as a war hero and symbol of the struggle with the United States, a “Noble Savage” whose life and death See table of contents provided material for nation-building discourses. Through the analysis of two long poems about Tecumseh published in the 1820s, this essay examines the early stages of Upper Canada’s co-optation of Tecumseh as a component of its Publisher(s) national identity. The valiant but ultimately savage character the poems depicted could inspire Upper Canadians and remind them of their wartime The Canadian Historical Association / La Société historique du Canada sacrifices, but he also served to mark off Indigenous people from the Euro-Canadians whose cultural superiority legitimated their possession of the ISSN colony’s lands and resources. These literary works produced a “Canadian” hero who could be incorporated as a national symbol for a settlement colony he 0847-4478 (print) never set out to defend, and whose massive expansion after his death he would 1712-6274 (digital) have vigorously opposed. Explore this journal Cite this article Brownlie, R. J. (2012). The Co-optation of Tecumseh: The War of 1812 and Racial Discourses in Upper Canada. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada, 23(1), 39–63. https://doi.org/10.7202/1015727ar All Rights Reserved © The Canadian Historical Association / La Société This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit historique du Canada, 2012 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ chajournal2012-vol.1b_chajournal2005.qxd 13-04-12 10:29 AM Page 39 The Co-optation of Tecumseh: The War of 1812 and Racial Discourses in Upper Canada ROBIN JARVIS BROWNLIE Abstract The Shawnee leader Tecumseh is one of very few named Aboriginal figures who are accorded a place in Canadian history texts. In the years following the War of 1812, he was claimed by Upper Canadians as a war hero and symbol of the struggle with the United States, a “Noble Savage” whose life and death provided material for nation-building discourses. Through the analysis of two long poems about Tecumseh published in the 1820s, this essay examines the early stages of Upper Canada’s co-optation of Tecumseh as a component of its national identity. The valiant but ultimately savage char- acter the poems depicted could inspire Upper Canadians and Remind them of their wartime sacrifices, but he also served to mark off Indigenous people from the Euro-Canadians whose cultural superiority legitimated their pos- session of the colony’s lands and Resources. These literary works produced a “Canadian” hero who could be incorporated as a national symbol for a set- tlement colony he never set out to defend, and whose massive expansion after his death he would have vigorously opposed. Résumé Le chef shawnee Tecumseh est un des Rares Amérindiens mentionnés nom- mément dans les livres d’histoire canadienne. À la suite de la Guerre de 1812, les Haut-Canadiens en firent un héros de guerre et un symbole de la lutte contre les États-Unis. Ils récupérèrent la vie et la mort de ce « noble sau- vage » dans leurs efforts pour construire une identité nationale. En analysant deux poèmes concernant Tecumseh publiés dans les années 1820, cet essai étudie les premières manifestations de cette récupération. Son courage et, plus fondamentalement, son caractère sauvage pouvaient inspirer les Haut- Canadiens et leur Rappeler leurs sacrifices durant la guerre. Ils servaient aussi à séparer les peuples autochtones des Euro-Canadiens dont la supériorité cul- turelle légitimait leur possession du territoire et des Ressources de la colonie. JOURNAL OF THE CHA 2012 REVUE DE LA SHC 2012 New Series, Vol. 23, no. 1 Nouvelle série, vol. 23, no 1 chajournal2012-vol.1b_chajournal2005.qxd 13-04-12 10:29 AM Page 40 JOURNAL OF THE CHA 2012 / REVUE DE LA S.H.C. Ces œuvres littéraires ont ainsi créé un héros « canadien » qui pouvait servir de symbole national dans une colonie qu’il n’a jamais voulu défendre et qu’il aurait combattu S’il avait survécu. Tecumseh, the Shawnee warrior, leader, and pan-Indigenous organizer, is one of very few Indigenous people who appear as named figures in the annals of Canadian history. Historians now understand him as an Indigenous patriot whose goal was to defend Indigenous nations and ter- ritory, not Upper Canada or British North America. Despite his legendary rapport with Sir Isaac Brock, he was no friend to Britain and had wit- nessed for himself that country’s betrayal of his people.1 But after his death in the War of 1812, he was claimed by British Canadians, and even some French Canadians,2 as a great war hero and symbol of the struggle with the United States, a “Noble Savage” whose life and death provided material for nation-building discourses. Writers in Upper Canada praised Tecumseh as a valiant warrior and portrayed his killing as a prime instance of American wrongdoing and injustice. These early authors found in the Shawnee leader a romantic, exotic figure with a record of military glory and a dramatic, tragic end. They did not explic- itly claim Tecumseh as British or Canadian, regarding him as clearly distinct from themselves in both race and nationality. Indeed, they con- structed Indianness as inherently incompatible with Britishness, and Tecumseh was not exempted from this primary racial division. Nevertheless, they incorporated elements of his story in their efforts to found a British North American historic and literary tradition. Using as examples two long poems about Tecumseh published in the 1820s,3 I set out here to examine the early stages of Upper Canada’s co-optation of the Shawnee warrior as a component of its national iden- tity. The themes that emerge most prominently in these early poems are Tecumseh’s indomitable spirit, his ability to command his fellow war- riors, and his fighting prowess. All these traits are shown as being exercised in the cause of avenging the great wrongs his people had suf- fered at the hands of the expansionist United States. As a tragic hero, he provided the opportunity for Upper Canadian writers to criticize the United States and dramatize the colony’s struggle against its recent foe.4 In his valiant battle against United States forces, Tecumseh symbolized chajournal2012-vol.1b_chajournal2005.qxd 13-04-12 10:29 AM Page 41 THE WAR OF 1812 AND RACIAL DISCOURSES IN UPPER CANADA Upper Canada’s desperate fight against its powerful neighbour. At the same time, his cultural difference offered scope for the expression of a number of other concerns: protest against war itself; discursive con- structions of race, Indianness, and whiteness; and perhaps an implicit critique of Britain’s policies toward Aboriginal peoples. Despite writing poems ostensibly meant to honour Tecumseh, both poets also depicted him in terms that reflected the era’s image of the savage, driven by vio- lence and lacking the education and cultivated emotions of Europeans. This hero could inspire Upper Canadians and remind them of their sac- rifices in the War of 1812, but he also served to mark off Indigenous people from the white Canadians whose cultural superiority legitimated their possession of the lands and resources of Upper Canada. Tecumseh’s role in the War of 1812 stemmed directly from his campaign to halt United States expansion and drive settlers off lands already taken from the Shawnee and their neighbours south of the Great Lakes. A chief of growing status in the first years of the nineteenth cen- tury, he had also been involved in the nativistic revival movement led by his brother Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet.5 Tenskwatawa’s move- ment initially emphasized a spiritual opposition to the ways of whites, but inched toward military resistance as other options faded. Tecumseh, at first mainly an aide to his brother, used his diplomatic and oratorical skills in the interest of seeking peaceful coexistence with incoming set- tlers, but concluded by about 1809 that diplomacy could not halt further massive dispossession.6 In the three years preceding the War of 1812, he worked tirelessly to persuade tribes living over an extensive ter- ritory south of the Great Lakes to join a large, pan-Indigenous military confederacy to defeat the United States. By June of 1812 he was pre- pared to launch a war — at just the moment when the United States chose to proclaim its own war against Britain.7 In that month he trav- elled to Amherst burg, in Upper Canada, and immediately became the British army’s most important Aboriginal ally, rallying other warriors to fight the United States and launching raids that turned the tide of war in Upper Canada’s favour.8 Throughout the remaining year and a half until his death in October 1813, at the Battle of Moraviantown, Tecumseh remained one of the most important Aboriginal allies of Britain and Upper Canada, playing key roles both in bringing warriors to the cause and in actual warfare.
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